The main focus is to improve the quality of care, to reduce variation and to improve patient outcomes. Investment will be directed towards services which will bring the most wide-ranging benefits to the most people.

As previously announced last year, £3 million will be invested to deliver the single cancer pathway. Wales is the first UK nation to take this step. The single cancer pathway aims to reduce the time that patients have to wait to receive cancer diagnostic tests and for their treatment to start. Once the new pathway is in place, a patient’s waiting time will begin from the point of a suspicion of cancer rather than the point of diagnosis.

A further £3m will support diagnosis services including endoscopy and radiology as well as innovative new procedures like gene and cell therapies.

There will also be a focus on rehabilitation services which will receive £3m in funding. This will be used to assess how key services are currently delivered. It will focus on community based prevention and early intervention which will help avoid inappropriate hospital admissions.

The remaining million £1m will be split between supporting 1,000 Lives improvement and the development of value based health care.

Health Minister Vaughan Gething, said:

The funding I have announced today will ensure that health services in Wales develop innovative solutions and ensure that patients get the most out of health services.

The investment will help unlock better ways of delivering services, provide consistency of care across Wales, and result in better outcomes for the people of Wales.